Thursday, November 24, 2011

Hussain Haqqani, Cyril Almeida & Truth on Dawn News Group.

NOW that they’ve got the scalp they wanted, a question: why did they want his scalp so bad? A trip down memory lane may help. Husain Haqqani’s last known flirtation with the army came in the early Musharraf years. Weaselling his way into the circle of Gen Rashid Qureshi, the principal military spokesperson at the time, Haqqani seemed to have his eye on the information minister slot. For whatever reason, Qureshi didn’t bite. Maybe he didn’t believe Haqqani could deliver BB to Musharraf. Maybe he just used Haqqani and dumped him once his utility was over. Whatever the case, Haqqani was left a spurned man and soon took to reinventing himself as a democrat. Suddenly, Haqqani was the go-to guy for all the anti-military, anti-mullah rhetoric and analysis you could possibly want. The capstone was his book, Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military . His transformation complete, he was picked as the ambassador to the US by a PPP government. At this stage, now back to having to deal with the army, Haqqani tried to play down his most recent past. Like Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan, the former chief minister of what was then NWFP, who banned his own book after coming to power, Haqqani tried to whistle past some of the more hard-hitting stuff he had written and said. But if the army and AZ share a trait, it is this: they never forgive or forget. Haqqani was a former insider who had turned on the institution whose patronage he had sought. He was a marked man. REFERENCE: Never forgive, never forgetCyril Almeida | Opinion | From the Newspaper http://www.dawn.com/2011/11/25/never-forgive-never-forget.html

What About this Romance of Dawn News/Haroon Family with General Pervez Musharraf

Hameed Haroon & Dawn News "Lecture" but Dawn News Censors.

KARACHI, May 24: DawnNews, Pakistan’s first English language TV news channel, will commence its test transmission on Friday (May 25) evening from its head office in Karachi. The 24-hour DawnNews broadcast will be fed by a network of newsrooms and studios located in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore and supported by a string of news bureaus in other cities and towns in the country. Owned by Pakistan Herald Publications (Pvt) Ltd, the publishers of DAWN, the network has over 300 journalists working under the Director News, Mr Azhar Abbas. Mr Abbas has had a distinguished career in electronic and print journalism. He was formerly managing director of GEO News. The network also has a team of veteran journalists and qualified newcomers demonstrating a strong reliance on agenda-broadening areas, such as environment, education and fine arts. “The synergy of a young generation of film-makers and news journalists at DawnNews is expected to gradually transform Pakistan’s information scene,” says a spokesman for Pakistan Herald Publications. REFERENCE: DawnNews TV’s test transmission from today May 25, 2007 Friday Jamadi-ul-Awwal 08, 1428 http://archives.dawn.com/dawnftp/72.249.57.55/dawnftp/2007/05/25/top4.htm

“In our endeavour to establish DawnNews we are enormously helped by our legacy – The legacy of DAWN, that was founded by the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah on 14th August 1947 in Karachi, the same day our nation was born. We believe that by facilitating access to information of the highest quality and with a defined commitment to clarity and accuracy, we can enable Pakistan’s young generations to assume their place as informed citizens of the world.” The commencement of test transmission for the public is expected to be marked by a simple ceremony at the headquarters of DawnNews in Karachi. The news channel is being transmitted free to air as of Friday and may be viewed in Pakistan either via cable or through a satellite receiver. Its satellite footprint covers a wide area stretching from the Middle East across South Asia, up to Malaysia and Singapore. At present the transmission is being conducted courtesy a temporary up-linking permission granted by Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra). The prospects for acquiring a permanent licence for DawnNews inched a few steps ahead last week when a public advertisement issued by Pemra announced the holding of mandatory public hearings in Karachi on May 30, usually set up prior to the issuance of a licence. REFERENCE: DawnNews TV’s test transmission from today May 25, 2007 Friday Jamadi-ul-Awwal 08, 1428 http://archives.dawn.com/dawnftp/72.249.57.55/dawnftp/2007/05/25/top4.htm

But Jinnah had never dreamt of Controlled and Guided Democracy by Military Dictator as well as he never dreamt of that a Military Dictator would be addressing a forum founded by a Lawyer of Impeccable Character i.e. Mohammad Ali Jinnah

KARACHI, May 25: President Pervez Musharraf on Friday described the media as the country’s first line of defence and assured of unhindered support for the freedom of expression, but at the same time warned against the growing trend of sensationalisation, and said that repeated projection of gory incidents and violence on television was brutalising society. He was speaking at a ceremony to launch the test transmission of DawnNews television. While praising the launching of the country’s first 24-hour English language news channel, President Musharraf described it as a unique event. But at the same time he did not hesitate in taking full credit for the mushrooming of private television channels, saying that whatever freedom there was in the country it was only because of him. “I alone had insisted that we must give them freedom so that the media could hold everyone accountable,” he said while recalling the early years in power when he had framed the media policy.

Gen Musharraf rejected the long-stated view of the journalist fraternity that the freedom of press in the country was the result of their campaign and persistent demand and said he was not aware of any such demand when he decided to ‘give this freedom’. It was quite apparent that the president had come to the launching ceremony to not just praise the media, or take credit for his policy, but also to speak his mind about the prevailing trends in newspapers and television channels. And although he repeatedly assured the select audience, and the country at large, that such level of independence would continue, President Musharraf’s insistence was that such freedom should come with a certain level of responsibility. He gave examples from the television coverage of the war in Iraq, and said while western media never showed bodies of their own soldiers, they had no hesitation in showing the images of the bodies of Saddam Hussain and his sons. The other example he gave was of the recent killings in one of the schools in the United States by a gunman, and said the American television networks made a conscious decision not to show the dead bodies. While presenting his argument, President Musharraf raised the issue of what he described as the trend of repeatedly showing gory images, blood and killings. He said such images were telecast round the clock as if they were from an India-Pakistan cricket match. Similarly, he said the way religious extremism was glorified by showing militants in Waziristan, or the clerics of Lal Masjid, and the manner in which their views were aired, amounted to ‘brutalisation of society’.

Indirectly holding the media partly responsible for the state of affairs in the country, President Musharraf said it was creating unnecessary alarm amongst overseas Pakistani and other potential investors. He was of the view that if the media failed to demonstrate what he called a certain level of responsibility in the projection of Pakistan, then it may have a negative impact on the economic and social progress of the country. He then went on to present a long list of development activities and his government’s achievements in the fields of economy, education, telecommunication, and even human rights. He said there were thousands of such projects that he was in a position to highlight, but according to him, the media had little time to report on such matters. In his words, the media was only interested in projecting negative events. President Musharraf said like in many other countries, in Pakistan too the media need to consider what was in the nation’s interest. He said while it was equally important to present, what he described as negative stories, President Musharraf said in order to raise the morale of the people, the media must also highlight ‘positive events’.

Touching on the present state of affairs, President Musharraf said the feedback he was getting through interaction, and not merely from the intelligence agencies, was that the majority was pleased with his policies. He described the demonstrations held in support of the chief justice as politically motivated events by a few, and claimed that the bulk of the population in the country was with him. He even gave the example of the turnout in some of the rallies he had recently addressed, and said although buses for bringing the people had to be hired, “more than 90 per cent people attended these public meetings on their own as they wanted to listen to what I had to say”. He said one of the biggest challenges faced by the country was the scourge of extremism and terrorism. He was of the view that if the media made a conscious effort to support the government on this issue, it may become extremely easy to tackle this problem.

Earlier, in his welcome address Hameed Haroon, chief executive of the Dawn group of newspapers, presented the history and traditions followed by Dawn since its first publication 60 years ago by Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Mr Haroon said although DawnNews was being run by a new and much younger team, its philosophy was not going to any different from that of Dawn newspaper. Agencies add: The president said he was a firm believer that ‘a free and vibrant media’ was good for the country. “Media is the fourth pillar of the state. I see it as the first line of defence and an essential ingredient of democracy, but it has to be responsible,” he observed. “I expect a balanced and true picture that can provide confidence to Pakistanis living abroad and here I believe media can contribute tremendously towards fighting extremism and terrorism,” the president said. He felt a ‘negative projection’ of the country might affect the economy by scaring investors away.“We need to develop national cohesion, underplay what can lower the nation’s morale and encourage what can raise it.” REFERENCE: ‘Media first line of defence’: DawnNews TV’s test transmission By Our Staff Reporter May 26, 2007 Saturday Jamadi-ul-Awwal 09, 1428 http://archives.dawn.com/dawnftp/72.249.57.55/dawnftp/2007/05/26/top4.htm